Is it really, *our duty* to report it? And at what cost to a living
person? I think that for those marginally notable, an opt out is not an
"extreme step", not as extreme as my first suggestion.
I'll agree, that it is their life, and their choice to make it public.
But must we be the agents of their perpetual embarrassment? Most
especially, if their articles are frequent targets of hatcheting and
libel. Most especially, if the notability is 'marginal'.
Jon-
WJhonson(a)aol.com wrote:
<<In a message dated 12/28/2008 7:36:08 P.M.
Pacific Standard Time,
newyorkbrad(a)gmail.com writes:
But this
response really does not sufficiently take into account the profound impact
that our coverage has on the subjects of our articles.>>
-----------------
And the counter-argument is, if someone has taken the step to become a
public person, say the mayor of Santa Cruz, no one is to *blame* for that step
except themselves. If we then turn up an article from a newspaper 20 years
earlier that states that they were arrested for three DUIs, well, again they did
it. The fact that we re-report it, and that we can collect it all together
with other tidbits, into a biography, is the mere fact of our project to create
a biography on the person.
We aren't here to meekly parrot press releases, that would be a slap in the
face of what creating an encyclopedia means.
The "profound impact" is merely that Sarah Palin doesn't want you to dig
into her past as reported in reliable sources, once she has become a bigger name
than merely the mayor of a tiny Alaskan town. However we do, they do,
that's the purpose of writing a biography. "This is your life" it's not
our fault
you messed it up. It is however our duty to report it. History is not
always nice and sweet.
Will Johnson
**************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail,
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